What Happens When Women Run the Economy?

Women now have many of the jobs controlling the world's largest economy. And they are trying to fix it.

Treasury¹ Secretary Janet Yellen, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai hold top positions in President Joe Biden's administration. Many of his economic advisers² also are women.

This change may already be affecting economic policy. A new $2.3 trillion spending plan was introduced by Biden last week. It includes $400 billion to finance the "care economy," which supports home- and community-based jobs taking care of children and older people. This part of the economy involves work usually done by women and has largely been ignored for many years.

Biden's spending plan also includes hundreds of billions of dollars more to fix racial inequalities, as well as inequalities between rural Americans and those living in cities.

"In the end, it might be that this bill makes 80 years of history: it begins to fix the structural³ problems," Yellen wrote on Twitter. She added: "This is just the start for us."

Some experts say women leaders can bring a new way of examining economic policy.

"When you're different from the rest of the group, you often see things differently," said Rebecca Henderson. She is a professor at Harvard Business School and published a book called Reimagining Capitalism⁴ in a World on Fire.

"We're in a moment of enormous crisis. We need new ways of thinking," Henderson added.

Over the past 50 years, many women have been presidents or prime ministers of their countries. Few women, however, have been in positions to make powerful decisions about the economy.

Outside the United States, Christine Lagarde runs the European Central Bank with its 2.4 trillion euro balance sheet. Kristalina Georgieva is at the International Monetary⁵ Fund (IMF), while Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala leads the World Trade Organization. Ten years ago, all those jobs were held by men.

The limited measures available suggest that women have a better record of managing through crises.

"When women are involved, the evidence is very clear: communities are better, economies are better, the world is better," Georgieva said in January. She was speaking about research done by the IMF and other economic organizations.

Women make up less than 2 percent of chief executive officers at financial companies and agencies and less than 20 percent of executive board members. However, IMF research shows that having women in charge often helps keep financial organizations out of crisis.

It is also important to note that the worldwide recession from the coronavirus pandemic has affected⁶ women much harder than men.

Women make up 39 percent of workers worldwide, but they accounted for 54 percent of overall job losses, a recent study by McKinsey showed. Bringing these women back to work could increase gross domestic product (GDP) in many nations by up to 27 percent.

Tai is the first woman of color to lead the U.S. Trade Representative's office. She has told her employees to think about diversity and to reach out to long ignored parts of the country.

Okonjo-Iweala is also the first African to head the World Trade Organization (WTO). In 2019, the WTO managed trade of nearly $19 trillion.

"The lesson for us is (to) make sure ... that we don't sink into business as usual," Okonjo-Iweala told Reuters. "It's about decent work for ordinary people," she said.

Words in This Story

enormous – adj. extremely large

manage – v. to have control of something, such as a business, department, organization, etc.

gross domestic product (GDP) – n. the total value of goods and services a country produces in a year

diversity – n. a situation in which many different kinds of things or people are included in something

decent – adj. of a satisfactory quality or level

1 treasury   

n.宝库；国库，金库；文库

参考例句：

• The Treasury was opposed in principle to the proposals.财政部原则上反对这些提案。
• This book is a treasury of useful information.这本书是有价值的信息宝库。

2 advisers   

顾问，劝告者( adviser的名词复数 )； （指导大学新生学科问题等的）指导教授

参考例句：

• a member of the President's favoured circle of advisers 总统宠爱的顾问班子中的一员
• She withdrew to confer with her advisers before announcing a decision. 她先去请教顾问然后再宣布决定。

3 structural   

adj.构造的，组织的，建筑（用）的

参考例句：

• The storm caused no structural damage.风暴没有造成建筑结构方面的破坏。
• The North American continent is made up of three great structural entities.北美大陆是由三个构造单元组成的。

4 capitalism   

n.资本主义

参考例句：

• The essence of his argument is that capitalism cannot succeed.他的论点的核心是资本主义不能成功。
• Capitalism began to develop in Russia in the 19th century.十九世纪资本主义在俄国开始发展。

5 monetary   

adj.货币的，钱的；通货的；金融的；财政的

参考例句：

• The monetary system of some countries used to be based on gold.过去有些国家的货币制度是金本位制的。
• Education in the wilderness is not a matter of monetary means.荒凉地区的教育不是钱财问题。

6 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。